Seasteading in French Polynesia and Beyond
Blue Frontiers’ Floating Island pilot project sets plans in motion for floating communities around the world.
Background on French Polynesia
French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic, comprised of 118 islands and atolls. Among its 118 islands and atolls, 67 are inhabited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate they called Etablissements des français en Océanie (EFO) (French Establishments/Settlements in Oceania).
In 1946, the EFOs became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFOs were renamed French Polynesia. Since 28 March 2003, French Polynesia has been an overseas collectivity of the French Republic. 1
In addition to its friendly people and beautiful weather, French Polynesian islands have calm waters within their lagoons, or they are atolls which feature an inner area which is essentially a lake within the ocean. This makes them ideal locations to build the first seasteads. Rising sea levels are an imminent threat to island nations around the globe, especially small islands in the Pacific. Even the largest of the French Polynesian islands, Tahiti, is under threat of losing coastline.
The Founding of Blue Frontiers
In September 2016, the Seasteading Institute met with officials in French Polynesia to discuss building a prototype seastead in a sheltered lagoon. President Fritch invited The Seasteading Institute to meet with government officials.The meeting was arranged by Former Minister of Tourism, Marc Collins, who is today a cofounder and Managing Director of Blue Frontiers. 1
On January 13, 2017, the French Polynesian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Seasteading Institute to cooperate on creating legal framework to allow for the development of The Floating Island Project. The Seasteading Institute announced the formation of a new company, Blue Frontiers, to construct the Floating Island Project.
The MOU outlined economic, environmental, and legal studies that Blue Frontiers agreed to undertake in order to prove the viability of the concept and move the project forward. A number of different sites have been explored, and the studies completed.
Studies Completed in 2017:
Blue21, a floating architecture and engineering firm based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, joined the Blue Frontiers team in 2017. Blue21 has done extensive research on floating architecture and the potentials of floating cities, and they have completed projects such as the Floating Pavilion in Rotterdam.
Visit the Blue21 Knowledge Base
In May 2017, Blue Frontiers hosted an event in Tahiti, where dozens gathered for workshops and community building.
For the past year, the Blue Frontiers staff and global team of over 100 professionals from around the world have been working in teams focused on energy and water systems, food systems, blockchain, information systems, design and engineering, sustainability and biomimicry. At this stage we are ready to solidify a site, continue testing, and commence building on land and sea. Blue Frontiers is currently running an ICO to raise funds for the project and initiate the use of cryptocurrency within the seasteading ecosystem. The Varyon presale closed July 15, 2018.
Some individuals and politicians from the Island of Tahiti — during the election cycle — expressed opposition to the project being located in a particular lagoon which Blue Frontiers was considering. This led to a mayor (who was facing an opposition candidate that was using the project against him) of the majority party reminding people that the Memorandum of Understanding is a non-binding document and that there is not a backroom deal taking place with us. The MOU required us to perform environmental, economic, and legal studies — all of which we completed last year. There is no need to renew the MOU.
Meanwhile, other communities in French Polynesia which are concerned by sea level rise have reached out to embrace the project, and many more options are also being considered. There are numerous locations in protected waters, in French Polynesia and other countries, where we are building relationships with the goal of starting seasteading. We plan to take our resources and talents to one of these locations and create mutually beneficial relationships with our neighboring communities. French Polynesia continues to be Blue Frontiers’ flagship initiative, and Blue Frontiers is still supported by the government.
As our teams have been looking into viable locations, we have discovered that around 54 countries have the conditions suitable for the first seasteads. Individuals reach out expressing their interest in bringing a seastead to their shores on a regular basis. The process of finding ideal locations and coming to agreements with host nations is a time consuming one, and having a local team dedicated to, and invested in, moving the project forward fits with Blue Frontiers ethos of community building and collaboration. We want to go where we are wanted, and we want to work alongside host nations and their populations.
French Polynesia will likely be the host of the first seastead, which nation will be the second? Since the process of creating a SeaZone and preparing for construction at a viable site can take many months, or even years, Blue Frontiers is exploring the realm of possibilities and inviting individuals to participate through a competition structure. The competition is expanding the scope of the seasteading movement around the world.
Blue Frontiers Global Competition
Blue Frontiers Global, the nonprofit arm of Blue Frontiers, has launched a worldwide competition to involve individuals in the process of securing future seastead locations. The goal of the contest is to promote the practical implementation of Seasteads by rewarding startup society entrepreneurs for securing concessions from their host government.
The contest strategy envisages world-class SEZ incentives that can apply to autonomous settlements on the ocean (owned and developed by Blue Frontiers), as well as to prime land-based zones (initiated by local allies and developed by investors of their choosing for shared benefit). In saying yes to such SEZ reforms, countries responding to the contest will create conditions for floating communities to flourish, and for local allies to seed creation of what can emerge as new Dubai or Hong Kong-scale havens of prosperity.
The Blue Frontiers Global initiative encourages the creation and adoption of economic incentives for autonomous settlements on the ocean in a bottom-up manner.
Learn more and enter the competition.
The Varyon presale ends July 14. Participate here.
